Policy, Place and Public Services

The Policy, Place and Public Services team is interested in issues of public policy across international, national, regional and local scales. It includes specialist research interests in central and local government, the healthcare sector, and the emergency services. It has a long-established interest in applied research and is widely known as a research exemplar for bridging the theory-practice divide. The group contributes to all three of the inter-disciplinary University-wide Strategic Research Themes: Digital, Technology & Creative; Health Innovation; and Safety and Sustainability.

The team embodies the University's commitment to providing research and scholarship with positive impact aligned with the University's social purpose. It produced two of the Business School's three impact case studies for the 2021 REF exercise and is currently developing several impact case studies, for the next REF and the one after.

Work by the team has appeared in leading public policy journals, such as Public Administration, Public Management Review, Policy & Politics, Local Government Studies, Public Money and Management, the International Journal of Public Administration and the International Journal of Emergency Services. As a result of previous work on the English Fire and Rescue framework, and the Scottish government’s policy for Fire and Rescue Service, the team have been invited to comment on a new policy framework for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The team works with an extensive network of associates, visiting scholars and collaborators, within NTU and in the wider academic and practitioner communities. These associates contribute hugely to its outputs and to its influence in both academia and the public services.

The group has provided seminars and presentations to other research groups; advised and contributed to grant applications, strategies and potential research projects. Members have arranged research consultancies, contributed to conferences and seminars, and acted as coaches and mentors to early career researchers. The following is a list of some of the professional associations and conferences in which the group is involved:

International Research Society for Public Management

UK Association for Public Administration

UK Political Studies Association

European Consortium for Political Research

• Zara Whysall (CO-I) and Prof Jane Ching (PI) (NLS) has successfully received funding from Nottinghamshire Magistracy on Judicial Diversity. The award is for £10,000.
• Sarah Pass (PI) NBS Seedcorn 2018 - The project has been awarded £2,154.
• Dr Rowena Hill from Social Sciences, together with Pete Murphy and Katarzyna Lakoma, have been awarded £21k to research Integrated Risk Management Plan Methodologies by the National Fire Chiefs Council.
• Petra Molthan-Hill and Michael Hewitt undertook a project ‘Transforming the Good Corporate Citizenship Assessment Sustainability Tool for the Health and Social Care Sector in the UK’ which is being funded (value £8,000) by NHSS Scotland.
• Nottingham CCG are reviewing how the integration of health and social care is progressing and have requested a report of the findings of Sarah Pass’s seedcorn funded project entitled “Overcoming the organisational barriers to the integration of Health and Social Care Services”.

Professor Peter Murphy appears regularly on national and local media in relation to central and local government issues and in particular around local government financial arrangements.

Dr Peter Eckersley has spoken about his research into local governance and climate policy on BBC 1, BBC local radio and LBC, as well as national news programmes on Japanese (NHK) and German (ZDF) television. He has also been interviewed for leading international newspapers (the Financial Times and Liberation in France).

Members of the group contribute to the academic and research community through articles posted on the blog ‘The Conversation’. Professor Pete Murphy has contributed with posts on Brexit, local government performance, fire and rescue services and regional austerity cuts. Dr Peter Eckersley has also contributed to The Conversation with posts on Brexit.

As our publications indicate, members of PPS undertake collaborations with colleagues, both around the UK and globally.

Internal to NTU

The group is actively involved in several projects that fall under the remit of NTU's Centre for Economy, Policy and Place, led by Will Rossiter, and also collaborates closely with other colleagues in the Business School, School of Social Sciences and Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.

External collaborations

The group have worked closely with the Emergency Services Research Unit in Social Sciences most notably Dr Rowena Hill in relation to Fire and Rescue Services and at the annual Fire Related Research and Development conference. The group has also developed relationships with the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Services, the National Fire Chief’s Council, Nottinghamshire police service, NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government, Northumbria Water Ltd, Scape Group, East Lancashire Health Trust, HMRC, and John Lewis. This has involved the development of relationships, meetings, and organisation of research (e.g. focus groups, interviews).

External University Collaborators

• Professor Paresh Wankhade of Edge Hill University (with Pete Murphy and Katarzyna Lakoma)
• Professor Ileana Steccolini of Newcastle University and the University of Bocconi Milan (with Martin Jones and Pete Murphy)
• Professor Iris Saliterer Freiburg University (with Martin Jones and Pete Murphy)
• Dr Enrico Guarini of University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan (with Martin Jones)
• Carmela Barbera of Bocconi School of Management in Milan (with Martin Jones)
• Professor Joyce Liddle of Northumbria University (with Pete Murphy)
• Kirsten Greenhalgh of University of Nottingham Emergency Services Research Programme (with Pete Murphy)
• Dr Angela Toothill of University of Nottingham (with Katarzyna Lakoma and Pete Murphy)
• Dr Lynda Taylor of University of Nottingham (with Pete Murphy)
• Professor Laurence Ferry of Durham University (with Peter Eckersley and Pete Murphy)
• Professor Anthony Zito of Newcastle University (with Peter Eckersley)
• Professor Charlotte Burns of the University of Sheffield (with Peter Eckersley)
• Dr Paul Tobin of the University of Manchester (with Peter Eckersley)
• Professor Zamzulaila Zakaria of the International Islamic University, Malaysia (with Peter Eckersley)
• Dr Wolfgang Haupt at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space, Germany (with Peter Eckersley)
• Professor David Buchanan, Cranfield University (with Pete Murphy and Michael Hewitt)
• Professor Paresh Wankhade of Edgehill University (with Pete Murphy and Katarzyna Lakoma)
• Visiting Fellow Glyn Lowth CIMA (with Pete Murphy)
• Visiting Fellow Simone Jordan (with Pete Murphy and Michael Hewitt)
• Visiting Fellow Rebecca Larder (with Pete Murphy and Michael Hewitt)

External Practice Based Collaborations

• Centre for Public Scrutiny (contact Pete Murphy)
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (contact Martin Jones)
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (contact Pete Murphy)
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (contact Pete Murphy)
• Fire Sector Federation, (contact Pete Murphy)
• Nottinghamshire FRS, (contact Pete Murphy)
• National Fire Chiefs Council (contact Pete Murphy)
• HMICFRS External academics research group (contact Pete Murphy)

Full details of all PPS members' publications can be found via the Institutional Repository of Nottingham Trent University. An indicative list of papers by members includes:

• Eckersley, P, Lakoma, K, Murphy, P, Caygill, T and Pell, C, 2025. Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks. Public Administration, 103 (3), pp. 906-922.
• Haupt, W, Laug, L and Eckersley, P, 2025. Structure, agency and local climate governance: how do individual actors exploit local contexts to shape policymaking in smaller cities and towns? Regional Studies, 59 (1): 2354384.
• Lakoma, K and Liu-Smith, Y-L, 2024. Debate: lessons learned from the emergency services' response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Public Money and Management, 44 (2), pp. 98-99.
• Lakoma, K, 2024. A comparative study of governance changes on the perceptions of accountability in Fire and Rescue Services in England. Public Administration, 102 (1), pp. 3-20.
• Eckersley, P, Flynn, A, Lakoma, K and Ferry, L, 2023. Public  procurement as a policy tool: the territorial dimension. Regional Studies, 57 (10), pp. 2087-2101.
• Murphy, P, Lakoma, K, Eckersley, P, Dom, BK and Jones, M, 2023. Public goods, public value and public audit: the Redmond Review and English local government. Public Money and Management, 43 (3), pp. 242-250.
• Lakoma, K and Murphy, P, 2023. The evaluation of Safe and Well  visits as part of the prevention activities of fire and rescue services in England. International Journal of Emergency Services, 12 (3), pp. 271-282.
• Eckersley, P, Flynn, A, Ferry, L and Lakoma, K, 2023. Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local  government: implications for autonomy in multi-level systems. Public Management Review, 25 (1), pp. 1-21
• Eckersley, P and Lakoma, K, 2022. Straddling multiple streams: focusing events, policy entrepreneurs and problem brokers in the governance of English fire and rescue services. Policy Studies, 43 (5), pp. 1001-1020.

Research Monographs and edited volumes

• Murphy, P., Lakoma, K., Eckersley, P. and Glennon, R. 2020. Rebuilding the fire and rescue services: policy, delivery and assurance. Bingley: Emerald.
• Murphy, P., Ferry, L., Glennon, R. and Greenhalgh, K. 2019. Public service accountability: rekindling a debate. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Eckersley, P. 2018. Power and capacity in urban climate governance: Germany and England compared. Oxford: Peter Lang.
• Murphy, P. and Greenhalgh, K. (eds) 2018. Fire and rescue services: leadership and management perspectives. Leadership and management in emergency services. London: Springer.
• Steccolini, I., Jones, M. and Saliterer, I. (eds) 2017. Governmental financial resilience: international perspectives on how local governments face austerity.

Work done by the group often generates significant and far-reaching impact. Some of these works are listed below as well other significant projects.

• Local Government Organisational and Financial Resilience – Written evidence (Peter Eckersley and Pete Murphy) and oral evidence (Pete Murphy) have been presented to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee of the House of Commons relating to Local Government Finance and the Spending Review 2019.
• Local Government Organisational and Financial Resilience – Briefings and submissions produced for NAO reports by Pete Murphy and Peter Eckersley have been used as the basis for parliamentary enquiries by select Committees.
• The Mansfield ASSIST project involving Pete Murphy and Michael Hewitt will contribute to the Health and Social Care Impact Case Study. This project won the NICE Shared Learning Award in 2017.
• Health and Social Care – the evaluation/appraisal of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Health System Programme of the local NHS by Rebecca Larder, David Buchanan, Simone Jordan, Pete Murphy and Michael Hewitt.
• Michael Hewitt’s contribution to the NHS 111 project has been implemented as part of the NHS England workforce governance guide.
• Pete Murphy and Katarzyna Lakoma have been actively involved in multiple projects for the national and local fire and rescue.

Projects:

• Central and Local Government
• Emergency Services
• Health and Social Care